TRANSPARENT: President Donald J. Trump promised to be transparent, and to choose justices for the Supreme Court from a list made public for the American people to see and evaluate.
- As a candidate for President, Donald J. Trump provided to the American people a list of 21 possible nominees to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
- In November 2017, after Justice Neil Gorsuch was confirmed to the Supreme Court, the President added five additional names, creating a final list of 25 candidates. The list is as follows:
- Amy Coney Barrett of Indiana, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
- Keith Blackwell of Georgia, Supreme Court of Georgia
- Charles Canady of Florida, Supreme Court of Florida
- Steven Colloton of Iowa, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
- Allison Eid of Colorado, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
- Britt Grant of Georgia, Supreme Court of Georgia
- Raymond Gruender of Missouri, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
- Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
- Brett Kavanaugh of Maryland, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
- Raymond Kethledge of Michigan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
- Joan Larsen of Michigan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
- Mike Lee of Utah, United States Senator
- Thomas Lee of Utah, Supreme Court of Utah
- Edward Mansfield of Iowa, Supreme Court of Iowa
- Federico Moreno of Florida, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
- Kevin Newsom of Alabama, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
- William Pryor of Alabama, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
- Margaret Ryan of Virginia, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
- David Stras of Minnesota, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
- Diane Sykes of Wisconsin, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
- Amul Thapar of Kentucky, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
- Timothy Tymkovich of Colorado, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
- Robert Young of Michigan, Supreme Court of Michigan (Ret.)
- Don Willett of Texas, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- Patrick Wyrick of Oklahoma, Supreme Court of Oklahoma
CONSISTENT: President Trump has repeated the transparent process he used to select Justice Neil Gorsuch.
- The President nominated Justice Neil Gorsuch from his original list of judges.
- President Trump: “I promised that, if elected, I would nominate a Justice who would be faithful and loyal to the Constitution. I even went one step further and publicly presented a list of 20 judges from which I would make my selection, and that’s exactly what we did.”
PRINCIPLED: President Trump has laid out a principled vision for Supreme Court justices who will faithfully interpret the Constitution as written.
- President Trump: “In choosing Justice Kennedy’s replacement, my greatest responsibility is to select a Justice who will faithfully interpret the Constitution as written. Judges are not supposed to re-write the law, re-invent the Constitution, or substitute their own opinions for the will of the people expressed through their laws. We reject judicial activism and policy-making from the bench. The faithful application of the Constitution is the bedrock of our freedom, the foundation of our society, and the linchpin of our government. The American System tasks Congress with writing the laws, the executive with enforcing the laws, and the judiciary with issuing neutral judgments based upon those laws and the Constitution we have sworn to protect.”